Watch The Sunrise
by Meowmix1066
Summary: Follows "Our Road Is Long." Flack and Aiden go on a date. MacAiden implied.


"Hey! Burn!"

Aiden stopped at the sound of Don Flack calling her name. It was Friday evening and all she wanted to do was go home, soak in the tub, and then fall asleep in front of her TV. Instead, she turned around, a smile on her face.

"Hey! Flack!" she called back, chuckling a little. He jogged up to her and she looked up at him, waiting expectantly.

"You got plans for tomorrow night?" he asked.

"Tomorrow night?"

"Yeah, I'm off and I figured, if you weren't doing anything, we could go out."

She raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything. This was actually rather amusing.

He gave a slight smirk. "If you're busy, that's ok, I got a list of girls I could ask."

She rolled her eyes, trying not to laugh. "If you want me to say yes, telling me you got a list of girls is _not_ the way to go about it."

"Oh, sorry. So, you up for it?"

She thought for a second, a grin spreading across her face. "Yeah, sure," she said.

He almost seemed flustered for a moment but quickly recovered. "Great. I'll pick you up at seven." He hesitated and then turned, walking back down the hallway. Aiden watched after him, smiling when he glanced back and caught her eye. As he turned the corner, Aiden laughed again and continued her way to the exit.

ll

"Mac, what are you looking at?" Stella had been in the middle of speaking when she noticed that Mac's gaze had landed beyond her and into the hallway. She craned her neck, trying to catch a glimpse of whatever it was that had caught his attention, but all she saw was Flack and Aiden speaking together. When she sat straight again, she found him looking at her.

"Are you through?" he asked.

She raised her eyebrows but didn't say anything. They continued talking through their current case until finally, Stella's eyes were blurring as she tried to read the file.

"Mac, it's late, I gotta go home."

He nodded, gathering together the papers that were in front of him and handing them to her. She took them and stuffed them in the folder.

"Did you wanna stop by my place?" she asked. "Maybe have a drink?"

He shook his head. "No, I think I'm just going to go home, it's been a long day."

"Aww, come on Mac, it's a Friday night and you haven't gone out in a while. Tell you what, we'll grab a bite to eat, my treat."

He looked up at her, the corner of his mouth crooking up. "How can I refuse?" he asked.

"Come on then, let's grab our stuff and go. You up for Indian?"

"Indian? Isn't that a bit spicy?"

"Oh come on Mac! Live a little! I promise, you'll like it."

"The living or the Indian?"

"Both."

ll

The next evening, Aiden sat across from Flack at the tiny Italian restaurant he had picked out. She couldn't help but feel a little odd, for one, she was dressed…well, not nicer than she usually dressed for work, but definitely different. For two, they weren't talking about dead bodies. Instead, they spoke of normal things, the kinds of things two friends talk about when they're relaxing. It was…nice, actually.

She didn't know why she felt so shocked about it. She and Flack had always gotten along so there was no reason why she should feel the little butterflies in her stomach the way she did. This was no different than if they'd gone out for food after a case. Except…it was. His asking had not been spur of the moment, nor had she treated the situation as anything less than a full on date as she had gotten ready. And now…now he was checking the bill the waiter had just left and pulling his wallet from his back pocket. Aiden swallowed the nervous giggle that rose in her throat. She couldn't deny it, it was a date.

When the check was paid and they finally stood, he held her jacket for her, his hands brushing her shoulders as he settled it into place. That shouldn't have sent a shiver down her spine but it did. Inwardly she laughed at herself. No wonder she tended to avoid dating, she felt like a giggly schoolgirl. She reflected for a moment…no, that wasn't entirely true, she avoided dating because her job wasn't always conducive to a social life. The giggly schoolgirl part seemed to be a recent thing.

She didn't have much time to consider her change in attitude towards dating though, because, at the moment she and Flack stepped outside, her cell phone rang. She looked at him apologetically and dug it out of her purse, flipping it open.

"Burn."

"Aiden, are you busy?" Mac's voice greeted her ear. He sounded urgent.

"Mac? What-?"

"I guess it doesn't really matter, we're shorthanded, I need your help."

Aiden glanced up at Flack who had gone to lean against a post. He had a concerned look on his face. "Do you want me to meet you at the lab or the scene?" she asked into the phone.

"Scene. Ocean Parkway Apartments. Brooklyn." With that Aiden heard the click as Mac hung up. She closed her own phone and slipped it back into her purse.

"Everything ok?" Flack asked as he walked back to her.

"God, Flack, I'm sorry, I've got to cut this short. Mac needs me."

"Hey, no problem. Let me call you a cab." Aiden watched as Flack stepped up to the curb and had the sudden notion that, had they not been interrupted, the evening would probably have ended very well, indeed. She felt her face heat slightly as she wondered just exactly how she had been expecting the "goodbye scene" to go. Perhaps she should be grateful that Mac had called when he did, at least now she and Flack would part ways in public, rather than in the hallway of her apartment building.

She had to wonder though, would parting in private necessarily have been a bad thing? She knew Flack well enough, at least, on a professional level, and she wasn't stupid enough to deny that she had some desire to know him on a personal level as well. Why else would she have agreed to an outing that was very obviously a date? She pushed that question to the back of her mind. Maybe later, when she could finally fall into bed and let her mind drift, she'd think about the idea that perhaps she liked Flack, was attracted to him, even.

They said an almost awkward goodbye, neither of them feeling it was entirely appropriate to make the requisite first date moves on a crowded sidewalk with a cab driver watching, yet also feeling that something as mundane as a handshake was too stiff. Finally, they settled on a hug, Flack's tall form enfolding her as she wrapped her arms around his back. When she settled herself into the cab, he shut the door for her and then tapped the roof, stepping backwards to watch as the car pulled away. She watched him too, from behind the tinted glass, and continued to watch as he turned, stuck his hands in his coat pockets and walked away.

ll

Aiden arrived on the scene to find that Mac, too, had just arrived. As she walked up to him, kit in hand, he furrowed his eyebrows at her.

"You look…nice," he said, then turned to walk into the building. "I'm sorry if I pulled you away from something important, but from the sounds of it, this one's going to take a while."

She nodded and followed him to the elevator, which they rode to the fifth floor. When they stepped out she could already smell the metallic tang of blood that filled the air. When they entered the apartment in question, her eyes widened.

"Holy crap," she said, under her breath. There was blood everywhere, much of it splattered on the walls and some of it pooled on the floor. She and Mac carefully stepped their way over to the victims, one, a young girl who looked to be in her early teens and the other, a middle aged man. Both looked to have been beaten before having their throats slit.

"Father and daughter," Mac said. "I wonder where the mother is."

Aiden looked up at him in surprise. "You don't think a woman did this, do you?"

Mac paused before answering. "No," he said slowly, "but we can't rule her out."

Just then a detective opened the door, causing the air in the room to shift. The scent of the blood almost overpowered Aiden. She gagged discreetly and, as the detective spoke with Mac, stepped into the next room. She glanced around, noting that there were obvious signs of a struggle. Crouching down next to the coffee table, the glass of which had been shattered, she saw that there had been two cups set on it; one had rolled underneath the couch and the other had come to rest next to the leg of an end table. After making a few more mental notes, she walked back in the foyer and found Mac leaning over one of the bodies with the ME, who had entered just after the detective.

"You ok?" Mac asked her.

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm going to go check the back rooms before we start on the living room."

"Good, take the camera."

She picked up her kit and the camera and headed down the short hallway, her shoes clicking sharply on the linoleum. Pushing open the first door she came to, she peered inside. It was the bathroom. She flipped on the light switch, flooding the room with bright, glaring light, and stepped in.

It wasn't the cleanest bathroom Aiden had seen but it wasn't the dirtiest, either. There were a few flecks of toothpaste around the spigot of the sink and water spots dotted the mirror. She looked down and saw dust bunnies in the corner. Then, she listened.

The toilet was running. Aiden kneeled next to it and looked into the bowl. Then she pointed her flashlight at the tank. There, just barely covered by the lip of the lid, was the smallest speck of blood. She stood back up and lifted the lid off, setting it aside. Lying at the bottom, blocking the plug, was a knife.

"You seem to have a fascination for checking toilets, don't you?"

She turned around to find Mac standing in the doorway. She laughed. "Shut up, there's a knife in there."

In two steps he was beside her, staring into the water with her. He reached in and pulled it out. The toilet stopped hissing.

"We might be able to salvage some prints off the handle. Also, the killer may have cut himself, we need to check the sink for blood," he said.

She nodded and set to work, as he moved on to another room. She swabbed the sink drain and, finding blood, proceeded to detach the pipes to take back to the lab. As she knelt back down by the toilet to dust for fingerprints, she could hear Mac rummaging around, occasionally muttering to himself. She smiled.

Eventually, after processing the foyer, they made their back to the living room. It was late, or rather, it was early and Aiden was beginning to feel her body starting to rely on adrenaline to keep moving. However, she kept working, enjoying the companionable silence as they worked opposite ends of the room.

Aiden was by the window, checking the carpet for more shards of glass from the coffee table, when she happened to look up out the window.

"Mac?"

"Hmm?" he grunted without looking up.

"Mac, look out the window."

He did and saw what had caught her eye. The sun had begun to rise and the sky around it was a flamboyant shade of orangey-pink, so bright that Mac almost felt like he should shield his eyes from it.

"You almost forget what it's like to see something pretty in the world and then something like that hits you upside the head. Funny, isn't it?" She looked back over at him and noticed he seemed to have a wistful look on his face. His eyes caught hers.

"Yeah, life can be funny like that," he murmured. He straightened. "We're done here, why don't you go home and go to bed? You look exhausted."

She gave him a grateful smile. "Thanks, I _feel _exhausted."

They packed up their kits and sealed the door. As they stepped onto the elevator, Mac spoke again.

"You know I'm sorry I had to ruin your evening, right?" he asked.

"Hey, it's no problem. I knew what I was signing on for when I took this job."

"Good. I enjoy working with you, Aiden."

"And I always enjoy working with you."

"You want me to give you a ride back to your apartment?" he asked as they stepped outside. The sound of traffic was already starting to escalate on the roads around them.

"Nah, I've got family a couple blocks over. I think I'll stop in and see the kids off to school before I head home."

"At least let me drive you, then," he said, holding the passenger side door open.

She chuckled and climbed in. "What would I do without you, Mac?"


End file.
